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University of Northern Iowa University of Northern Iowa UNI ScholarWorks UNI ScholarWorks Graduate Research Papers Student Work 2002 Vocabulary : a building block in reading Vocabulary : a building block in reading Lisa L. Capper University of Northern Iowa Let us know how access to this document benefits you Copyright ©2002 Lisa L. Capper Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/grp Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Elementary Education Commons, and the Language and Literacy Education Commons Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Capper, Lisa L., "Vocabulary : a building block in reading" (2002). Graduate Research Papers. 461. https://scholarworks.uni.edu/grp/461 This Open Access Graduate Research Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Research Papers by an authorized administrator of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected].

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University of Northern Iowa University of Northern Iowa

UNI ScholarWorks UNI ScholarWorks

Graduate Research Papers Student Work

2002

Vocabulary : a building block in reading Vocabulary : a building block in reading

Lisa L. Capper University of Northern Iowa

Let us know how access to this document benefits you

Copyright ©2002 Lisa L. Capper

Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/grp

Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Elementary Education Commons, and the Language

and Literacy Education Commons

Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Capper, Lisa L., "Vocabulary : a building block in reading" (2002). Graduate Research Papers. 461. https://scholarworks.uni.edu/grp/461

This Open Access Graduate Research Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Research Papers by an authorized administrator of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected].

Vocabulary : a building block in reading Vocabulary : a building block in reading

Abstract Abstract From all of my reading and research, I learned that vocabulary is an essential part of teaching. In all of the curriculum areas, knowledge of vocabulary is important. With word understanding, comprehension grows and so does the student's knowledge.

Vocabulary development activities not only include many opportunities for students to be actively involved with reading a variety of books, but, through vocabulary instruction, the teacher directly teaches important words and strategies to help students understand what they are reading. Through the use of a variety of strategies I observed how different strategies can help students learn and grow in their knowledge. I now know a variety of strategies that work effectively with students that I might not have tried without doing my research for this project.

This open access graduate research paper is available at UNI ScholarWorks: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/grp/461

Vocabulary: A Building Block in Reading

A Graduate Project

Submitted to the

Division of Reading Education

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts in Education

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA

by

Lisa L. Capper

May 3, 2002

This Project by: Lisa L. Capper

Titled: Vocabulary: A Building Block in Reading

has been approved as meeting the project requirement for the

Degree of Master of Arts in Education.

Date Approved ci;~Faculty Reader

o/-Q-OQ Date Approved

" GraduateFacuy Reader

Rick Traw

Charline J. Barnes

Penny L. Beed

p. 1

Vocabulary: A Building Block in Reading

My name is Lisa Capper and I am currently in the process

of finishing my master's degree at the University of Northern

Iowa in reading education. To complete my degree I conducted

a graduate project with my third grade students in the fall

of 2001.

I am a third grade teacher at Tripoli Elementary School.

Last year the elementary school implemented a new reading

basal published by Harcourt. It was during our

implementation and everyday use of this reading basal that I

found a need to help build vocabulary development with my

students. Many of the new vocabulary words introduced prior

to reading the story were unfamiliar to the students. After

I introduced the new vocabulary words and assigned the

vocabulary workbook page, many of my students were not

successful with this workbook assessment. It was a struggle

to find strategies that might help my students have more

success.

It was during our school workshop on how to use

Inspiration Software that a colleague and I decided to work

on a project that would help students develop vocabulary.

Once the project was completed, we began to implement it in

our classrooms. I observed much enthusiasm from my students

as we began using this new project. The new word was written

on their sheet and pronounced. The students would then look

the word up in the thesaurus to find two or three synonyms

for the new word and hopefully make the connection from the

new word to a familiar synonym. The next step was to have

each student write a sentence using the new vocabulary word

p. 2

Vocabulary: A Building Block

correctly. The final step was to create a picture that would

go along with their sentence.

After implementing this new strategy I saw improvement

with the students' understanding of the new vocabulary words

and improvement on the workbook assessment. It was a

successful strategy that seemed to improve student learning.

It was through this success that my interest in

implementing more strategies in the classroom to improve

vocabulary development grew. I therefore proposed a project

which included two major elements. The first element was a

review of the literature which would support the need for

improving vocabulary development. The second element was the

research and implementation of strategies to improve

vocabulary development using both the reading basal and other

children's literature.

I believe this project helped my students improve their

vocabulary, but it also improved my knowledge of vocabulary

strategies and how to implement them into my classroom.

Review of Literature

Vocabulary instruction is an integral component of

teaching children how to read both narrative and

informational text (Rupley, Logan, & Nichols, 1999).

Vocabulary knowledge is fundamental to reading comprehension:

we cannot understand text without knowing what most of the

words mean (Honig, Diamond, Gutlohn, 2000). Vocabulary is

partially an outcome of comprehension skills, and reading

comprehension is partially an outcome of vocabulary. Thus,

they provide a mutual benefit in promoting reading

development (Daneman, 1991). Not having access to the

p. 3

Vocabulary: A Building Block

meanings of words representative of the concepts and content

of what they read causes difficulty in children's

comprehension of texts, limits their ability to make a

connection with their existing background knowledge, and

inhibits their capacity to make coherent inferences (Heilman,

Blair, & Rupley, 1998).

According to Irvin (1998), people have four types of

vocabulary: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The

listening and reading vocabularies are receptive, and the

speaking and writing vocabularies are expressive. Most

students enter school with fairly large listening and

speaking vocabularies - ranging from 2,500 to 5,000 words

(Beck & McKeown, 1991). Data collected by White, Graves, and

Slater (1990) on the size of students' reading vocabularies

indicate that even first grade students have reading

vocabularies ranging from 3,000 - 10,000 words and that their

reading vocabularies indeed grow each year by 3,000 - 4,000

words. It is therefore recommended that both direct

instruction and wide reading are means for fostering

vocabulary development (Rupley, Logan, & Nichols, 1999).

The majority of word meanings are learned through

everyday experiences with oral and written language (Baumann

& Kameenui, 1991). According to Nagy (1988) increasing the

volume of students' reading is the single most important

thing teachers can do to promote large-scale vocabulary

growth. Therefore, if wide reading is the most important

vehicle for large-scale vocabulary growth, then helping

students to make the most of learning words independently is

imperative (Irvin, 1998). It is crucial that students learn

p. 4

Vocabulary: A Building Block

strategies for learning word meanings independently (Baker,

Simmons, & Kameenui, 1988). Some of these strategies might

include using context, learning and using word parts, and

using glossaries and the dictionary.

Though it is clear that wide reading provides students

with many rich and meaningful contexts for word learning,

there is still a place for vocabulary instruction (Blachowicz

& Lee, 1991). In order to facilitate vocabulary development,

intentional vocabulary instruction in specific concepts and

word meanings is necessary (Baumann & Kameenui, 1991; Nagy,

1988), particularly for those words that are conceptually

difficult or that represent complex concepts that are not

part of students' everyday experience. Comprehension of a

text depends crucially on knowledge of specific words that

may not be familiar to some students (Nagy, 1988). Teaching

individual words pays benefits beyond the learning of

individual words. Teaching individual words focuses

students' attention on words, lets them know that we value

word knowledge, and leaves them with a richer store of words,

which itself facilitates their learning additional words from

context (Graves,1992).

Research has indicated that effective instruction

consists of a variety of techniques to help students make

connections between unfamiliar words and their own prior

knowledge (Stahl, 1999). Students ought to be engaged in

learning new words and expanding their understanding of words

through instruction that is based on active processing. That

is, students are not just memorizing definitions but are

entering information and integrating word meanings with their

p. 5

Vocabulary: A Building Block

existing knowledge to build conceptual representations of

vocabulary in multiple contextual situations (Rupley, Logan,

& Nichols, 1999). Knowing a word in the fullest sense goes

beyond simply being able to define it or get some sense of it

from the context. Active processing that associates

experiences and concepts with words contributes significantly

to vocabulary growth, enhanced comprehension, and continuous

learning (Rupley, Logan, & Nichols, 1999). The following

instructional guidelines reflect the inclusion of these

active processing components.

1. Select words for vocabulary instruction that come

from texts that students will read in the classroom. This

helps make the meanings of words relevant to the context in

which they appear and helps to build connections between

existing knowledge and new knowledge.

2. Base instruction on language activities as a primary

means of word learning. The focus of the activities should

be on engaging the students in generating the learning of new

words to enhance remembering and deep processing of the

words. Students should be provided multiple opportunities to

use new words in their speaking, listening, reading, and

writing activities.

3. Build a conceptual base for learning new words. Use

analogies, language features, and other relationships to

known words to activate students' background knowledge of

concepts related to new words.

4. Provide a variety of instructional strategies to

store word knowledge (mental pictures, visual aids,

p. 6

Vocabulary: A Building Block

kinesthetic associations, smells, tastes, etc.) (Blachowicz &

Fisher, 1996; Blachowicz & Lee, 1991, pp. 188 - 195).

Semantic mapping, semantic feature analysis, word

mapping, and webbing are effective iqstructional strategies

that incorporate many of the guidelines for active processing

of vocabulary. These instructional activities enable

students to expand their vocabularies, understand

relationships between existing and new information, and learn

(Rupley, Logan, & Nichols, 1999).

In conclusion, vocabulary development depends not only

on immersing students in a variety of reading but also in

providing direct instruction using meaningful contexts that

actively involve the students by incorporating their

background experiences. Vocabulary development is an

essential part of comprehension and it should be integrated

into the curriculum using the students' texts and building on

the students' prior knowledge.

How Do Children Learn Words?

According to Johnson (2001) for every child learning any

language, three separate but related tasks are required to

learn word meanings. The first task is a naming task.

Learners must make the discovery that certain sequences of

speech sounds that they hear and later articulate serve as

the names and labels of things. The second task in word­

learning requires grouping things that fit together under the

same label. The third word-learning task involves figuring

out how different words relate to one another within and

across categories. These three word-learning tasks, naming,

classifying, and relating, are significant individual

p. 7

Vocabulary: A Building Block

discoveries that begin early in life and are employed in

vocabulary acquisition throughout life (Johnson, 2001).

Continuous cultivation of students' language ability is

the foundation for vocabulary growth (Rupley, Logan, &

Nichols, 2001). Our vocabularies are the clearest examples

of social construction in action; most of our vocabulary

learning takes place in encounters with others, through

first-hand experiences, through talk, and through reading

(Anderson & Nagy, 1984; Cunningham & Stanovich, 1999).

Why Teach Vocabulary?

Research indicates that the most important factor in

variability in reading comprehension is word knowledge

(Ruddell, 1994). Anderson and Freebody (1985) concur,

stating that it is probably safe to say that the number of

word meanings a reader knows is an accurate predictor of his

or her ability to comprehend text. Although growth in

vocabulary knowledge occurs rapidly and almost effortlessly

for some children, the rate at which word meanings are

acquired can vary greatly (Biemiller, 1999). Teachers must

therefore realize the importance of vocabulary instruction in

their classrooms.

One way teachers can increase general, nonfocused

. vocabulary growth is to have students engage in lots of

reading (Johnson, 2001). Wide reading improves children's

vocabulary knowledge. It also can improve children's overall

intellectual growth (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1991).

A second way to help students increase their

vocabularies is _to teach them skills, generalizations, and

strategies that will enable them to learn words on their own.

p. 8

Vocabulary: A Building Block

The three types of independent word identification

strategies are structural analysis, phonic analysis, and

contextual analysis (Johnson, 2001).

The third way in which children learn new words is

through direct instruction by the teacher. Direct

instruction is called for when a teacher wants students to

learn particular words, for example, critical words in a

short story, chapter, or article that the class is about to

read (Johnson, 2001).

How Do You Teach Vocabulary?

When a teacher wants to improve vocabulary with his or

her students it might seem like an overwhelming task to

decide where to begin. Students are going to come to class

knowing a variety of words, having many experiences, and

applying strategies they know already when reading.

Understanding that not all students have the same knowledge

base is what makes teaching a challenge.

Johnson (2001) developed eight guidelines for expanding

vocabulary through and for reading:

Guideline 1: Teachers need to devote instructional time

to vocabulary growth.

Guideline 2: Wide reading should be encouraged and

facilitated.

Guideline 3: Use direct instruction to teach passage

critical words. Passage critical words are the words the

teacher deems essential for understanding a text when the

text provides insufficient clues to enable the reader to

text provides insufficient clues to enable the reader to

infer the meaning of the words.

p. 9

Vocabulary: A Building Block

Guideline 4: Learning new words requires active

involvement with the word - not passive learning of

dictionary definitions (Stahl, 1986).

Guideline 5: Readers must have repeated exposures to a

word to learn it well (Miller, 1996). To know a word means

knowing what it means, how it fits with related words, how to

pronounce it and write it, and the contexts in which it can

occur.

Guideline 6: Requiring students to only write the

definitions of words is not recommended.

Guideline 7: Successful vocabulary strategies help

students relate new words to their own prior knowledge, as

well as to other related words.

Guideline 8: Students need to develop strategies for

acquiring new words independently from written and oral

contexts (pp. 41 - 48).

What words should be chosen for vocabulary instruction?

Many vocabulary word lists have been developed, mostly based

on high frequency tabulations. Johnson (2001) has come to

realize that most children, adolescents, and adults learn

most of the words they know through oral and written

connnunication - through listening and reading, speaking, and

writing. He continues by adding that there are words that

must be learned if students are to comprehend what they read

and hear, to engage in conversations and discussions, and to

write what they know and believe.

The words should come from materials and texts that

students will need to know. Select important words that need

to be taught so comprehension can happen. These words can

p. 10

Vocabulary: A Building Block

come from a variety of sources and different subjects, but

students should not be overwhelmed with too many words. May

(1988) suggests choosing only two or three words from the

day's reading and teaching those words is depth. He

considers that a few words well taught is a far superior

situation to teaching many words superficially, most of which

will not be remembered anyway.

Who should choose the vocabulary words for study? Both

teacher and students can be involved with the process of

selecting vocabulary words for study. Research indicates

that when students make their own selections, they choose

words at or above their grade level a majority of the time

(Blachowitz, Fisher, Costa, & Pozzi, 1993). Strategies that

encourage student self-selection include a Personal

Vocabulary Journal and Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy_.

Personal Vocabulary Journal

A Personal Vocabulary Journal (Wood, 1994) can be used

to record words that students encounter in their daily lives

which are unfamiliar to them (see "Personal Vocabulary

Journal", Appendix A). The format of these journals can

vary, but consistency is helpful. Students record the

unfamiliar word, where the word was found, what sentence it

was used in, and what they think the word means. They must

then find the dictionary definition and record it. The

students can then compare their guess to the actual

definition and write a sentence using the word in its correct

context. Personal journals may also include pictures that

represent the word's definition. These personal journals can

be shared and discussed in small groups, with a partner, or

p. 11

Vocabulary: A Building Block

with the teacher. If the words are coming from a shared text

these words would generate ideas for words the class might

study together.

Another version of the personal vocabulary journal is I

Know What That Means! (see uI Know What That Means!",

Appendix B). Students find words from their story that are

new to them. They are to guess what the word means using

context clues and record their guess. Then, they are to look

the word up in the dictionary and compare their guess to the

definition. If their guess is right, they can check the box.

If not, they write what the word means on the line. The

process continues while the students are reading their story.

Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy

The Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy (VSS) (Haggard,

1992) is a strategy in which students, rather than the

teacher, generate the words to be explored and learned. The

strategy begins with selecting words. Students are asked to

go back through the assigned reading and identify one word

that they think should be studied. The teacher also selects

a word. Each student or group of students along with the

teacher nominates a word to be studied. As the word is

recorded, it is defined and the reasons for choosing the word

are given. After the list is completed, the list of words

must be narrowed down. This is accomplished by eliminating

duplications, words already known, or words children do not

wish to learn at that time. Follow-up activities such as

matching exercises, word searches, or word puzzles are used

to enable children to refine and extend the meanings of the

p. 12

Vocabulary: A Building Block

words on the final list (Searfoss, Readence, & Mallette,

2001) .

What subject should I start with? Your focus in

vocabulary instruction might begin with a single subject and

then you might broaden your focus to include more subjects.

When I began my project I wanted to focus on reading

vocabulary. I was using a basal for my reading instruction

and I wanted to see improvement with my student's knowledge

of the reading vocabulary. I knew that understanding the

vocabulary words for each story was a key to comprehending

the story. Later, I began applying vocabulary strategies to

both science and social studies.

Do the students have an anchor or prior knowledge of the

new words? If they have had prior experience with the word,

you should utilize that knowledge in teaching the word by

building a bridge between what the children know and what

they have to learn (Searfoss, Readence, & Mallette, 2001).

Some strategies that help build on prior knowledge include

Semantic Mapping, K-W-L chart, Semantic Feature Analysis, and

List-Group-Label.

Semantic Mapping

· Semantic Mapping (Heimlich & Pittelman, 1986) was a

common strategy that I began using with my students (see

"Semantic Mapping", Appendix C). I would select the word or

topic for an upcoming story or unit and place it in the

middle of the web. Students were then asked to contribute to

the discussion of the word/topic by adding related words and

categories to the map. One example of this strategy was when

we were going to read a play in our reading basal that

p. 13

Vocabulary: A Building Block

involved a mystery. The topic in the middle of the web was

mystery and the students then began brainstorming words they

thought about when they heard the word mystery including

detective, clues, pictures, magnifying glass, a problem,

something could be missing, etc. The students were actively

involved with the process of relating to the topic using

their prior knowledge. It was informative to discuss what

they already knew about a mystery.

Semantic Mapping has been found to effectively improve

both children's recall of taught words and their

understanding of passages containing taught words in a number

of different circumstances(Johnson, Toms-Bronowski, &

Pittelman, 1982; Johnson, Pittelman, Toms-Bronowski, & Levin,

1984; Margosein, Pascarella, & Pflaum, 1982).

K-W-L

The K-W~L (Ogle, 1986) is another strategy that I

implemented with my students prior to reading a story and

then completed after reading a story (see "K-W-L", Appendix

D). First, the story topic was presented and the the students

were asked what they already knew about the topic. The list

of what we know (K) was recorded together as a group on large

chart paper or sometimes each student would complete his or

her own K-W-L chart. Next, the students were asked what they

wanted to find out about during our unit or story about the

topic. This was also recorded on the K-W-L chart under what

we want (W) to find out. The final element of the chart,

what we learned (L) and still need to learn, was completed by

the students after the story was read or during our unit of

study.

p. 14

Vocabulary: A Building Block

I found this strategy a great tool for introducing and

incorporating vocabulary words. Before reading a story in our

basal about a whale we completed a K-W-L chart about whales.

During our discussion about what we know one student thought

whales ate some small things that are in the water. I

questioned the class to see if we anyone knew what those

small shrimp-like creatures are called that live in the

water. Another student told the class they were called

"plankton". This was a key vocabulary word that now could be

added to our chart and become a part of our words to know for

this story.

Semantic Feature Analysis

Semantic Feature Analysis (Johnson & Pearson, 1978) is

another strategy that involves the use of prior knowledge

(see "Semantic Feature Analysis", Appendix E). This strategy

uses a grid instead of a map to graphically display

relationships between words and their features or

characteristics. You begin by adding the words from a

similar concept down the left hand side. Across the top, add

features or characteristics about the words. For example,

when my class began an ocean unit I listed the names of ocean

animals down the left hand side and features about the

animals across the top including warm-blooded, cold-blooded,

scales, fins, flippers, lays eggs, etc. Next, the students

are encouraged to add more features or characteristics to the

chart. The students then discuss each word and decide if it

is an example of the feature or characteristic. The grid is

then completed using plus signs if the word does include the

feature, or a question mark if the students are not sure.

p. 15

Vocabulary: A Building Block

The semantic feature analysis chart can be studied again

after the students have read the text or their knowledge

grows throughout the unit. My class did review the chart

after our ocean unit and discovered some plus and minus signs

that they would like to change. I found this strategy most

helpful when we were reading nonfiction stories in our basal

and I also used this strategy in other science units and

social studies units.

List-Group-Label

Taba (1967)is given the credit for developing the

vocabulary strategy called List-Group-Label, which encourages

students to categorize their thoughts about new words (see

"List-Group-Label", Appendix F).

The procedure for List-Group-Label begins with having

the class brainstorm a list or things that comes to their

mind on the topic to be studied. The teacher may also choose

to. introduce terms for the class. The second step is to

group the words into categories either as a class or in small

groups. The final step is to have the class label the groups

to indicate the shared relationship with the words. Students

must be able to justify why these words were grouped together

and why the label fits. Following the List-Group-Label

activity the students may read the selection or complete the

unit of study about the topic. It is then important to look

at the previously created lists, add any new words and review

the groups and labels related to the topic. This will

reinforce prior knowledge as well as increase the students'

knowledge about the topic.

p. 16

Vocabulary: A Building Block

What happens when students have little prior knowledge

or experiences with a word or when it is more technical in

nature? This is when teacher-directed instruction is

essential for comprehension to happen. Some strategies that

help with instruction include Contextual Redefinition, PAVE

Map, and Possible Sentences.

Contextual Redefinition

Contextual Redefinition (Readence, Bean, & Baldwin,

1998) provides teachers with a format to communicate to

children the importance of context in ascertaining meaning.

The use of context enables children to make more informed

predictions about meanings of words in print and to monitor

those predictions. Context is necessary for dealing with

multi meaning words, word connotations, and other nuances of

meaning inherent in language (Anderson & Nagy, 1991). By

using Contextual Redefinition, you can teach children the

power of context in helping.them to develop word meanings and

effectively process print (Readence, Bean, & Baldwin,1998).

Contextual Redefinition begins with a selection of

unfamiliar words. The students are given the words in

isolation and asked to offer definitions for each word.

Next, write a sentence containing the unfamiliar word. This

sentence may come from the text or if the text doesn't have

appropriate clues create one. Again, children should offer

guesses about each word's meaning. Finally, children look up

the word in a dictionary to verify the guesses (Searfoss, I

Readence, & Mallette, 2001).

PAVE Map

p. 17

Vocabulary: A Building Block

Another strategy called PAVE Map (Prediction,

Association, Verification, Evaluation), developed by Bannon,

Fisher, Pozzi, and Wessel (1990), helps students to cross­

check a word's meaning with the context in which it appeared.

This strategy is also useful for words with multiple

meanings·.

The procedure of PAVE Map is similar to Contextual

Redefinition. A target word is selected from the the reading

material. Students copy the sentence in which the word

appears. Students print the target word again and predict

the meaning. The dictionary is used to verify the meaning.

Then the students write the dictionary definition. If the

predicted definition is incorrect, students rewrite a

sentence using the correct dictionary definition. Lastly,

students sketch a representational image of the target word

to help them remember its meaning (Honig, Diamond, & Gutlogn,

2000) .

Possible Sentences

Possible Sentences (Moore & Moore, 1986) is another

strategy that focuses on key concept vocabulary and context

clues. The teacher makes a list of key words and works with

the students to come up with short definitions of each word.

Next, the students think of sentences that contain at least

two of the key words that might appear in the selection they

are about to read. When the students have finished the

reading, have the students look again at the sentences on the

board. Encourage them to discuss whether each sentence could

or could not be possible. If a sentence is not accurate,

p. 18

Vocabulary: A Building Block

have the students discuss how to rewrite it to make it an

accurate statement (Honig, Diamond, & Gutlohn, 2000).

What Do I Do After The Words Have Been Taught?

The goal of vocabulary learning is to have students

store the meanings of words in their long-term memory, and to

store the kind of information about a word that is useful in

understanding text (Carroll, 1964). Important words are

introduced to children before they read. They use these

words in their reading and any follow-up discussion. They

then further practice with these words in an extension

activity. Extension activities should give children the

opportunity to think about the meanings of the vocabulary

words they are learning (Searfoss, Readence, & Mallette,

2001). Some examples of extension activities include

matching exercises, word searches, and word puzzles.

Matching Exercises

To reinforce long-term memory learning of vocabulary

definitions· I have implemented matching exercises. Once a

week, I draw ten vocabulary words out of a pail and create a

matching quiz. I provide the ten words and fifteen

definitions on the quiz. The students then match the words

with their correct definitions.

The other matching exercise I provide for the students

is included in our vocabulary center. The game is

Concentration. The vocabulary words we are studying with our

reading story of the week are written on index cards along

with their definitions on separate cards. The cards are

mixed-up and placed upside down on the table. The students

then attempt to match the vocabulary words with their

p. 19

Vocabulary: A Building Block

definitions. To vary this activity I also create matching

games using the vocabulary words and their synonyms.

Word Searches

Word searches are another exercise used to reinforce

definitions of vocabulary words (see "Word Search", Appendix

G). The words are randomly written into the puzzle to be

found by the students. The word's definition is given and

the students must find the word in the puzzle that goes with

it. The students are reading the definition and then

searching for the vocabulary word in the puzzle that matches

with that definition. These word searches have been created

by the students in my class and by me.

Crossword Puzzles

Crossword puzzles are also created using the vocabulary

definitions as the clues and the vocabulary words are written

into the appropriate boxes. These puzzles are also created

by the students and by me.

Conclusions

When beginning this project with my students I would

have never expected to learn so much as a teacher. From all

of my reading and research, I learned that vocabulary is an

essential part of teaching. In all of the curriculum areas,

knowledge of vocabulary is important. With word

understanding, comprehension grows and so does the student's

knowledge.

Vocabulary development activities not only include many

opportunities for students to be actively involved with

reading a variety of books, but, through vocabulary

instruction, the teacher directly teaches important words and

p. 20

Vocabulary: A Building Block

strategies to help students understand what they are reading.

Through the use of a variety of strategies I observed how

different strategies can help students learn and grow in

their knowledge. This project allowed me to grow as a teacher

because I now know a variety of strategies that work

effectively with students that I might not have tried without

doing my research for this project. I also feel more

confident that I am meeting the needs of my students when it

comes to learning vocabulary. Vocabulary instruction is now

an area I feel is worth the time and effort needed to help

students. I am very glad I chose vocabulary instruction as

my project.

p. 21

Vocabulary: A Building Block

References

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Vocabulary: A Building Block

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Association.

My new word is

I found it

Appendix A Personal Vocabulary Journal

The sentence it was used in

I think it means

The dictionary definition

My sentence is

My picture

p. 26

Appendix B p. 27 I Know What That Means!

I Know What That Means! Directions: 1. Find a word from your story that is new to you. 2. Read the sentence where you found the word. Try to guesss what the word means. 3. Record your guess 4. Look the word up in the dictionary. If your guess was right, put a check on the line. If not, write what the word means on the line. 5. Continue to find words In your story that are new to you.

1. New word _______________________ _

My guess

My guess was right! ___ _

This Is what It means

1. New word _______________________ _

My guess

My guess was right! ___ _

This Is what It means

Appendix C Semantic Mapping

p. 28

K What we know

Appendix D K-W-L

K-W-L Chart

w What we want to know

p. 29

L What we learned

. '. I

'.·· ·. :.: ·semJt:~tic·F~atur.e Analyst.~ . . . , .. · .. • .. ' -.. . . . . -

. . . . -.... ..

J

en

-1 .· I I- .. . CD I I i, -1 ... I . . I~

------rr+Y.__._._t--c----+--d8=•

O-o i1"'0 CD CD

·I ·I ' b !!l.5_ . . X I -·-1 -1 .. 1----- ·._ . ax· ..... _· ·: 1~m Sl)

~ vr

. . . Suiµmary · . '. .. . . : ; · · What coricJus'i9ns c·EJri you ;draw by studyi~g the iriforination pn the _cha~?·

• ,· . •' • • • • I . . • . • • ." • •

,

::, (Al 0

Topic

Appendix F List-Group-Label

List all of the terms that come to your mind about the topic.

Group and Label the terms

After reading, these are the new words I added to the groups

p. 31

Now look at all of the groups and ·labels to see if they need to be changed.

..

Appendix·G Word Search

Word Search Created by _________ _

:

p. 32